“Polly” (Nirvana Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening and welcome to another awesome edition of The Laptop Sessions!  Tuesday is always a tricky day for me since I usually have school, then a couple of hours to practice and spend time with my wife, then my weekly Dynamis run.  We had a good run tonight, but then I get to post my performance – and tonight it’s a new band!

The band I am featuring tonight is Nirvana, one of the most well-known alternative rock acts of all time.  The song I am playing is from their awesome 1991 album “Nevermind”, and it is “Polly”.  It’s a sweet, acoustic number that is kind of out of place on the album.  All the songs have a grunge feel to them (perhaps not the last track, but the rest of them sure do), and this song breaks up the flow of the album, but in a good way.  It makes all the songs not sound the same, and I think the hooking tracks were all singles, which is why the album sold so well in the first place.

The band was fronted by Kurt Cobain, who committed suicide in the mid-90’s much to the dismay of many Nirvana fans.  But that’s a topic you can read about nearly anywhere.

As far as me, I am nearing another viewcount milestone, and can’t wait to reach the 1/20 of a million mark (that’s for my students who say “I hate fractions”).  I’ll be sure to let you know when I cross that threshold.

It’s also my birthday tomorrow – another year added on to my old fart status.

Enjoy tonight’s session!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“The Last DJ” (Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening to you, and welcome to your Saturday edition of The Laptop Sessions!  Tonight we (finally) return to our regularly scheduled…well, schedule…and we are now posting on nights we were originally scheduled to post.

That being said, sorry, no new band tonight.

Instead, it’s one we haven’t covered in some time – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers!  From their 2002 album “The Last DJ” is the title track from that album.  I first heard this particular song via (who else) Jim, and I have always been a fan of Tom Petty’s work thanks to my brother.  This is the 3rd song I have covered from this band.

Oddly enough, I think it’s a great cover, and I think the other two are good as well.  It’s a great song to cover on acoustic since the driving track is acoustic on the song.  You have to love the chorus and the message of the song as well.

I think the higher quality I get on my new laptop has been tremendous during the past 3 months, though.  If you view the videos through Youtube, you will see the “watch in higher quality” button and that will make it sound even better!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“A Rush of Blood to the Head” (Coldplay Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Good evening!  Welcome to your Friday edition of The Laptop Sessions, and to make up for the short (but thumpin’) song yesterday, I have a song that is more than double the length of yesterday’s song.  And it’s from a familiar band that I have enjoyed covering a lot.

Coldplay returns tonight with the title track of their album “A Rush of Blood to the Head”.  This album has a lot of songs similar to this – a soft, mellow acoustic style with interjections of drive guitars and distorted solos.  This is probably the longest song by them that doesn’t involve some of Chris Martin’s trademark falsetto (with exception of the opening, but that part isn’t all that difficult).

It was fun covering this song.  It is based on acoustic, so covering it was easy.  I nearly had it in one take but I played the Bb chord in the chorus too soon.  So on take #2, I was happy with it.  The timing of some of the verse lines and post-chorus lines are different than the studio recording, but this cover version works just fine with that.

I hope you enjoy today’s cover.

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and original music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up. We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session. We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future. But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

More Laptop Sessions covers

“Space Between” (Dave Matthews Band Cover)

By Jeff Copperthite:

Ok, the day has finally come…it’s a day that Chris and Jim have dreaded ever since they found out that Jeff “Is not impartial to listening to the Dave Matthews Band”…

…it’s here.

Jeff has finally garnered the courage to do a Dave Matthews Band acoustic cover video.

I tried my best to spray the highest quality can of “troll-b-gone” on this video.  Dave Matthews fans are going to come out of the woodwork telling me how much I don’t sound like him, or how far away from his guitar skills I am.

But, as you all know, we are dedicated to bringing you acoustic cover videos from all kinds of bands.  And let’s face it – DMB is one of the premier jam band acts of all time, and their fanbase is huge.  We want to show you what we can do.

The song I have chosen (and there are plenty to choose from) is a song from their 2001 album “Everyday” called “The Space Between”.  This song is easily picked out by it’s electric guitar riff that plays through most of the song (use a standard D fingering on the 9th fret and you’ll have that riff).  However, a solo acoustic cover playing just that riff is extremely difficult to play, let alone sing over.  I find this version good because it allows you to hear the chords that play under that riff.

Dave has a highly unstructured singing style, so remembering how to time each line was difficult.  Repeat takes were often due to the vocals – the guitar part got easier after the 24th take, which was just before I had to recharge the battery on my camera.  2 takes later, I got this version.

I hope you enjoy this video. Have a great weekend, and thank you again for being a regular visitor!

Editor’s Note: Unfortunately, Jeff’s acoustic cover song music videos are no longer on YouTube, but we decided to keep his cover song blog posts up.  We figured these music blog entries would be good for posterity’s sake and because Jeff always gave such insightful posts each Session.  We hope to see Jeff’s impressive catalog of acoustic rock songs here on the Laptop Sessions cover songs and origianal music blog again in the future.  But, for now, please make sure to check-out hundreds of other acoustic cover songs from all of your favorite bands here on the Laptop Sessions music blog!

More Laptop Sessions covers